Pumbaa's Nightmare
by LittleMeerkatGirl
Summary: Pumbaa relives one of the saddest moments of his life in his sleep. ONESHOT Please R&R! I'm new, so please be gentle.


A/N: The Lion King and all of the characters from it are ©Disney.

This is just a little Oneshot I made for a little experiment with emotions. I made it because I've always been curious about Pumbaa's past… so here it is! Enjoy…

Oh, and I was watching the movie "Signs" while I wrote this, so the death scene in that contributed to this story a little bit.

--

It was a quiet night in the Oasis. All of the meerkat residents were sound asleep. The only thing that could be heard was the chirping music of the Night Whisperers.

Timon and Pumbaa had returned home to the Oasis earlier that day, retiring from a long, hard year of babysitting Princess Kiara. Both of them were extremely exhausted.

Timon was sleeping soundly, snoring quietly. Pumbaa, on the other hand, seemed to be experiencing some slight discomfort, although he was sleeping as well. His eyes twitched ever so slightly and his mouth quivered. His breathing came out in short wispy breaths. If anyone had been watching him, they would have most definitely notice his restlessness. He was having a nightmare…

***

_A young warthog was chasing a grasshopper. He frolicked and played in the tall grass, happy as happy can be. He didn't have a care in the world. All that mattered to him now was himself and this little grasshopper. Their play would never end, and the warthog piglet was intent on never growing up either._

_Everything was tinted gold, from the sky to the swaying grass. Nothing could go wrong today. Not when the little warthog was having so much fun. This day couldn't be more perfect. _

"_Pumbaa…"called a soft, majestic female voice. The little warthog stopped for a moment, listening. When nothing happened, he continued to leap and play._

"_Pumbaa," came the majestic voice again. The little piglet, Pumbaa, halted his frolicking. He pricked his ears up and leaned in the direction of the voice._

"_Mother?" he called to the voice. His voice was raspy and high-pitched._

"_Pumbaa, where are you?" came the voice, a little more urgently this time. "Pumbaa…."_

"_Mother!" Pumbaa looked around in search of the voice. He soon found it. A sleek female warthog was frantically looking for Pumbaa, not exactly far from where he stood, but she didn't seem to see him in the tall grass. She looked quite like him, though she was lighter in color and much thinner than the usual warthog. She was beautiful, even for a warthog. Pumbaa trotted over to her, so light on his feet that he didn't make any noise. _

"_Mother!" Pumbaa said when he was right behind her._

"_Pumbaa!" Startled, she jumped around to face him. "There you are dear…" She panted, trying to calm down. "You gave me quite a scare." _

"_Sorry, Mama…" Pumbaa shuffled his hooves a bit. The female smiled at him warmly._

"_It's all right, dear." She bent down to nuzzle him. "It's all right…. Just try not to wander so far away from me. Something bad could have happened to you, something could have…" She broke off. She pricked her ears up, her eyes wide. Pumbaa didn't seem to notice as he continued to nuzzle her legs._

_Dark clouds filled the sky. Chubby drops of rain began to fall, one by one. _

_Pumbaa's mother was listening intently. Pumbaa, who had noticed that something was wrong, was peering around curiously. _

_Rain started pouring down more steadily._

_Pumbaa's mother sharply turned her head in a different direction, as if she had heard something._

"_Pumbaa, run." She commanded sharply. Pumbaa looked taken aback._

"_What is it, Mother?" _

"_Run!" She started backing up. Pumbaa looked confused. He couldn't see any danger._

"_Run!" she shrieked, pushing Pumbaa hard with her tusks._

_Out of nowhere, a leopard bounded towards them. It roared a howling roar._

_Terrified, Pumbaa turned tail and ran. He ran as fast as his short little legs would allow._

_He heard his mother yelling from behind him, "FASTER PUMBAA! YOU HAVE TO RUN FASTER! _

_He ran through the tall grass, leaping over any logs or boulders that got in his way._

_Because of the rain, there was a great deal of mud, and to Pumbaa's horror, he slid and fell. Covered in mud, he scrambled up off of the ground. In an attempt to jump over an especially big, fallen tree, he slipped and missed his target. He hit one of the branches on the top of it, the branch broke under his weight, and he was tossed into a ravine, knocked out._

_Blackout._

_Pumbaa awoke at dusk with a searing headache. He was dazed for a few moments, peering around dizzily, when he suddenly remembered what had happened several hours previously. He stood up shakily and looked around. _

"_Mother?" he choked out to the darkness. "M-mother?" He paced back and forth before suddenly bolting forward. _

"_MOTHER!!" Pumbaa desperately called out. _

_He glanced around with a panic-stricken expression on his face. _

"_MOTHER! WHERE ARE YOU?!" He cried, tears stinging his eyes. Finally, he heard a soft sigh. "Mother!" He scrambled to the spot where his mother was attempting to get up off of the ground. She was breathing odd raspy breaths and was covered in blood. Pumbaa notice that she had several large gashes and claw marks all over her body._

"_Mother?" _

"_H-he's gone," she said breathlessly, shakily standing up._

_To Pumbaa's horror, she crumpled back on to the ground. _

"_Mother!" _

_He walked cautiously to his mother's side. "Mother?" He nudged her shoulder. "Mother, please get up… We've gotta go back to the den. The other warthogs will worry about us…" _

"_Pumbaa…" she whispered. "Come… come here…" He hesitantly obeyed. _

"_Yes, Mama?" Pumbaa's eyes were starting to water. _

"_Pumbaa…" She began softly. "Dear, sweet little Pumbaa… don't worry yourself about me." Her breaths began to slow. "Mommy… Mommy needs to rest."_

"_Yes, ma'am." He shifted uneasily._

"_Watch over yourself, Pumbaa. Let your heart show you the way. You're such a smart little piglet; I know you'll do great things with your life. Even if I'm not here when you do, I'll know. I'll know…_

"_Mama, don't talk like that…. You're gonna be okay!" Tears were pouring out of his eyes. _

"_Tell your Aunt what happened. She'll know what to do." Her eyes started to glaze over. "And… tell Pumbaa…"_

"_Mama, I'm right here!" Pumbaa sobbed. _

"_It's okay to be different. Don't let anyone bring you down…"_

_Pumbaa was literally shaking with grief._

"_Pumbaa, you have to listen to me…." She continued. "I want you to go back to the sounder. Tell them what's happened. Your Aunt will help you…" she trailed off. _

"_Mama…" _

"_Tell…them…"_

"_Mama?"_

_Lightning flashed as Pumbaa realized that he was alone._

***

Pumbaa awoke with a start. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. He was back in the present day at the Oasis.

"Pumbaa, you okay there, buddy?" Timon asked him with an alarmed expression on his face.

"I'm fine…" Pumbaa lied.

"Oh," Timon got up off of Pumbaa's belly. "Did you have the dream again?"

"Yeah…." Pumbaa looked terribly disturbed. Timon noticed this.

"C'mon, buddy, it was just a _dream_, right?" Timon arched his brow. Pumbaa bowed his head. "What was it…_about_, anyways?"

"My… my mother…" Pumbaa said.

"Oh…" When a tear rolled down Pumbaa's cheek, Timon smacked his forehead in realization. "_Oh!"_

Timon appeared lost for words as they sat there.

Finally he said, "Pumbaa… if it makes you feel any better… I don't have a Dad…"

Pumbaa peered over his shoulder at Timon. "Really? You don't have a Dad?"

Timon shook his head sadly.

"What happened to him?"

"He was killed by…" Timon gulped," hyenas." Pumbaa winced.

"What was your Dad's name?"

"Buzz… Fearless Buzz," Timon smiled lightly at the sound of his father's name.

"Awww…" Pumbaa pulled Timon into a back-breaking hug.

"Let's go back to sleep, buddy," Timon said once Pumbaa had released him. "We can go visit Simba in the morning if you want." Pumbaa plopped onto the ground.

"Sounds good, buddy."

Timon crawled onto Pumbaa's belly, and soon the two of them were sleeping peaceful, dreamless sleep.

A/N: Well, that's it. Did ya like it? Tell me in reviews! I will read and reply to all! I'm new and this is my first fic, so please be gentle. There's going to be some extremely dark and emotional scenes in my upcoming full-length fanfics, so I guess you could call this a practice run. If you have any advice on how I could make emotional scenes better, that would be great! 


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